{"id":885354,"date":"2026-01-16T16:30:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/former-saints-quarterback-selected-in-2026-ufl-draft\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:30:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:30:05","slug":"former-saints-quarterback-selected-in-2026-ufl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/former-saints-quarterback-selected-in-2026-ufl-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Saints quarterback selected in 2026 UFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Football <\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canalstreetchronicles.com\/#content\"><span>Skip to main content<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<nav aria-label=\"Sticky Nav\"><\/nav>\n<div><main id=\"content\"><\/p>\n<div class>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>Where will the QB continue his professional football career?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class>\n<p><span><time datetime=\"2026-01-14T14:00:00+00:00\">Jan 14, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC<\/time><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<p>On Friday, January 9, quarterback Hunter Dekkers was selected by the United Football League\u2019s Houston Gamblers during the first phase of the association\u2019s multi-stage draft. Less than one year ago, Dekkers found himself going undrafted in the 2025 NFL Draft, but will now have an opportunity for a fresh start with a new team in hopes of continuing his professional career.<\/p>\n<p>Dekkers signed with the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent following a minicamp tryout in May 2025. He was never able to see the field during the preseason as Kellen Moore and the Saints worked rigorously to figure out their starting QB situation ahead of the regular season. Although Dekkers did not wind up making the active roster, he still found a place within the organization with a spot on the practice squad.<\/p>\n<p>The Iowa native stuck close to home as he played the first three seasons of his collegiate career at Iowa State University as a Cyclone before wrapping his college days at Iowa Western University, a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association.<\/p>\n<p>Dekkers will join another undrafted 2025 QB, Donovan Smith, on the Gamblers\u2019 roster this spring. Smith played collegiate ball at both Texas Tech and Houston.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Loading comments<\/p>\n<p>Getting the conversation ready&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canalstreetchronicles.com\/new-orleans-saints-news\/105686\/former-saints-quarterback-selected-in-2026-ufl-draft\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a> Jason Watson Jr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Skip to main content Where will the QB continue his professional football career? Jan 14, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC On Friday, January 9, quarterback Hunter Dekkers was selected by the United Football League\u2019s Houston Gamblers during the first phase of the association\u2019s multi-stage draft. Less than one year ago, Dekkers found himself going undrafted in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":885355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790,148,23796],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-885354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"category-former","9":"category-saints"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}